Discussion

Ramen Yukinoya - A nice surprise in Arcadia

Since there's not much to eat in Arcadia except for Chinese I'm always excited by openings of Japanese restaurants here.

The specialty here is tonkotsu broth but they do serve lighter shio and shoyu variants as well as some cold noodles as well.

Pretty standard fare for the tonkotsu broth, not too fatty like Yamadaya but nothing truly standout. I was impressed with the cooking of the noodles which are the thick curly type. They were very chewy and just cooked enough, I was pleasantly surprised more by the noodles than the broth. The slices of cha-shu are nicely prepared nothing noteworthy but good enough for a neighborhood compared to the atrocity of Ajisan Ramen. The menma (marinated bamboo shoots) were very good as well, normally I don't like how strongly soy flavored they are but these were definitely made in house and were mild on the sodium (which I don't mind but I like to be able to taste the shoots). The egg is also perfectly cooked if that is also an indication of the ramen quality here. Yolk is just slightly set but still viscous while the egg whites are very soft and don't have the texture from being hardboiled.

The tan-tan men which comes hot or cold looked very good, my friend let me sample some and it easily puts Chin Ma Ya to shame.

As for sides the braised pig's feet seemed out of place so I had to try it and it was very tender, fatty, gelantinous and a fare sized portion for $7.50. The side of fried rice was pretty passable but the shredded pork rice was pretty good, would probably get that next time.

Overall nothing extraordinary but it is still good ramen, although it doesn't reach the lofty heights of the heavyhitters on the Westside and Southbay I'm glad I don't have to get on the freeway to get a decent bowl of ramen now.

Thanks for the report. Went tonight and we had the tonkotsu and spicy miso ramen. The tonkotsu was definitely better. The spicy miso ramen came with thicker noodles. They were downright stingy with the chashu though, only 2 pieces in each bowl (and one of them was the large size).